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How to Watch “American Dad” Online Outside of the US

By Paul Liu
Thursday, November 7th, 2013

American Dad is an adult animated sitcom series which made its debut on the Fox channel in February’ 2005. The series was conceptualized by Mike Barker, Matt Weitzman and Seth MacFarlane as a part of Fox’s “Animation Domination” lineup. American Dad has garnered wide critical acclaim for its brand of satire and humor and the series was also nominated for Teen Choice, Golden Reel and Primetime Emmy awards for its past seasons. The tenth season of the show premiered on Fox in September’ 2013 and the series is scheduled to move to the TBS channel from its next (eleventh) season.

American Dad Plot And Storyline

American Dad revolves around the eccentric Smith family and their unusual housemates. Stan Smith is a CIA agent who will go to any length to protect his country. The family also includes Stan’s wife Francine, who has a checkered past; Hayley Smith, their college going daughter and Steve Smith, their teenage son who always tries to be cool. In addition, the Smith household has two unconventional members; Roger, the brazen alien who is full of shocking antics and deceptions; and Klaus, the German speaking goldfish.

American Dad Broadcast Schedule And Availability

American Dad is telecast on Sunday nights at 9:30 P.M. on the Fox channel. The series episodes are also available online through the Fox portal (fox.com/americandad). However, due to licensing restrictions associated with the show, the online episodes are accessible only within United States. When international viewers try to watch American Dad’s episodes online, they just see the message – “The video you are attempting to watch is only available to viewers within the US, US territories, and military bases”. These types of restrictions are especially unfair for US expats and tourists since they are not able to watch the latest episodes of their favorite shows just because they happen to be outside the country.

How Fox Blocks Access To American Dad And What Can Be Done About It?

Fox does not allow international visitors to watch American Dad online since it has transferred the international broadcasting rights to its partners. Due to the content sharing agreements signed between Fox and its partners, the channel is legally bound to prevent international visitors from accessing the show online. The channel relies on the IP address of the visitors to verify their location and only allows viewers with a US IP address to access the series episodes.

If you wish to unlock American Dad episodes from outside US, you need to switch your IP address to a US IP so that the IP based restrictions are no longer applicable upon you. This can be done by subscribing to a reliable Proxy or VPN service that provides US based IP addresses. It is much better to use VPNs to watch streaming shows online since only they can deliver ultra fast speeds and unbreachable privacy that is essential for unlocking such services.

How To Unlock American Dad From Abroad With A VPN

Step 1: Subscribe to a dependable VPN service that offers US based IPs. For unblocking American Dad, we recommend signing up with HideMyAss, proXPN, PureVPN, IPVanish or VyprVPN since these vendors provide unlimited speeds and bandwidth along with IP addresses from several US cities.

Step 2: Create a brand new VPN connection on your Smartphone, tablet or computer by following the step-by-step instructions provided by your vendor. A lot of VPN providers even provide custom VPN software but such tools are usually available only for Windows and Mac based systems.

Step 3: Restart your system after saving the new connection parameters. For Smartphones and tablets, rebooting the device is not necessary but you must close and restart the Fox app so that it can connect to the Fox website via the VPN connection.

Step 4: Click on the VPN Connection name in the start menu (or tap the Connect option on your mobile screen) to start using the service. Depending on your actual location and internet speed, it could take few minutes for the service to connect to its default server.

Step 5: Once the connection is established, check the location of your new IP address through an IP checking tool. If the new IP is from US then you are ready to unlock American Dad but if it is from some other country then you must switch to a US server manually before visiting the Fox website. While making the switch, remember to pick a server located close to your actual location so that you can experience high browsing and streaming speeds.

Step 6: Visit the Fox website once again through the browser or app. Click on American Dad episode names to unlock the videos and verify that you can watch them without facing any kind of restriction. If you still see “Content Unavailable” message on your mobile device then remember to close and restart the Fox app after switching to a US IP address. Congratulations, you are now ready to watch full episodes of American Dad from just about anywhere.